I think Halloween is actually great financial and economics training for kids. On this one day of the year, kids enter the labor market and perform a task (door-to-door trick-or-treating) to receive payment (candy). Some kids are faced with harder working conditions (hills) than others (apartments). Some receive better compensation (full-size candy bars) than others (fruit). But in effect, everybody does work and gets paid. That's a great lesson on labor markets, working conditions, and wage inequality.

Later that night, there's usually some sort of trade-and-barter system. Some candy is objectively better than other candy, and some people are just weird and like all the lemon-flavored things. That's a lesson on value and free market economics.

Finally, there's a lesson on the time value of money, as the kids who save their candy are able to enjoy it long after all the gluttons blow through their savings in a week.

I think this is largely why I grew out of celebrating Halloween. Sure, it's weird to trick-or-treat as an adult or even as a teenager. But honestly I can work for way less time and buy way more candy at a store whenever I want because I have a real job that pays well. It's economics. #money